Returning to the Hobby

Unmotivated 

Between 2019 and early 2024 I hardly did anything productive for the hobby.
I had completely lost my Mojo.
I started a lot of projects but never completed anything. Instead I wasted a lot of time mostly sitting at the PC, usually playing some kind of video game - real time sinks.

I did a few things, usually around September when I visited the Edersee XXL Maltreffen

But they were just kind of "alibi" works.

I did sculpt a fat ugly Goblin king - just because I could - and painted it

But most were unfinished, lifeless and loveless projects

Sick!

Then in March 2024 the shingles got me!
Not in the usual spot, but around my eye and forehead.

Not a pleasant experience! 
I think I aged about 5 years in that time - Just 3 months between these two images

It was close, but I never lost my spirit!

I certainly wouldn't have chosen the circumstances, but they did break the routine I had been stuck in.

Bored

Soon after I had recovered enough, but was still on recovery leave, I got bored.

And one day I picked up a little pack of FIMO.
Just playing around, kneading it, making it soft.

And then I grabbed some beads and pushed them into the FIMO

That was the little demon stealing my Mojo!

And all of a sudden I felt the urge to continue, to do more.

This was now deliberate - though without a plan, just letting it flow, but intentional.

A "John-Hurt-ish" Pirate

That was fun!
How about a Doctor Mabuse?

A cool little study

Over the next few days I continued happily sculpting away

Starting usually with a pretty blank "canvas"

and then let it flow

At some point it became more intentional and I pushed in a specific direction, following a feeling — not a real idea yet.

The jester-idea formed

Actually not bad.

This sculpt was the first "planned" one.
I had an idea that I wanted to realize.

Not a dinosaur, but a chameleon

With a trenchcoat!

And so I created Humphrey Melion

After some joking with friends about the cigarette, I decided to try a Bob Melion version, but in ZBrush as I ran out of Sculpey and FIMO

He was fun too!

Returned

And that's when the urge to build something larger and actually finish it came back.

I started "The Dreamer"

The Dreamer turned out to be more important than I realized at the time. It was the first proper project I had started — and actually finished — in years.

And somehow, one thing led to another. The Dreamer eventually took me to the Bembel Miniature Cup in 2025. Preparing for the competition made me look through some of my older projects again — including those little astronaut dioramas that had been sitting in the drawer for years.

And that, in turn, brought Wilma & Vladimir back.

Looking back from 2026, that little pack of FIMO started quite a chain reaction :)